


Countdown

by yaodai



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood, Child Neglect, Child Soldiers, F/M, Hiruzen vs executive disfunction, Hokage Mito, Kid Fic, M/M, Ninja morality is not our morality, Other, Second Shinobi War, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Tiny Mischievous Sannin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-09-12 04:25:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16866088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaodai/pseuds/yaodai
Summary: Sarutobi Hiruzen is send back in time and counts days until the apocalypse comes again.The history twists and turns despite him.





	1. Part I Chapter 0

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KriKee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KriKee/gifts).



> Beta: ox0hunny0xo
> 
> Gift for KriKee for the Orochimaru server exchange!  
> This is probably not what You had in mind when asking for a timetravel kidfic...  
> I hope You'll enjoy it anyway <3

Countdown

 

Chapter 0: Perfect Vengeance

 

Sarutobi Hiruzen dreamed of trees.

Dreams of wide trunks going up and up for what seemed to be eternity, of crowns covering up the sky and filling the world with an endless night; of a maze of roots as wide as he was high, hungrily digging up into the earth and sucking it dry.  
Underneath, there was only ash, grey and flaky, moving with the slightest hiss of the wind, shifting grains telling a story of death and destruction.  
It seemed to be the only sound left in the world.

It looked dead. It sounded dead.

Hiruzen couldn't recall what had happened.  He remembered…  
A battlefield, dark and surrounded by roots and another one - a cage made of impenetrable seal surrounding him from all sides but this…

Looking down answered some of his questions.

His hands were grey and cracked, fingernails dull and black. Hiruzen saw his hands looking like that and he also saw other people, going through motions more like puppets than real people, all of them long dead.

"Edo Tensei..." he whispered, recognizing what it was.

What he was.

"Took you some time to figure it out," came a mocking voice. "Then again, it is you."

"Orochimaru."

Hiruzen turned around to face his traitorous student once more, swallowing the cold sense of dread.

Orochimaru was sitting on one of the overgrown roots, a solid meter above the ground, elbows resting on his knees, back slouching.  
Long black hair was obscuring his face, unusually messy and tangled.

"What have you done this time?"

"Oh, you're asking about this, aren't you?" Orochimaru replied, making a wide bow with his arm, to include the trees, the emptiness, the silence, fabric flapping on the wind.

He was wearing a loose hanfu. Dark pants and high collared shirt, along with a loose jacket that would be pale pink if not for the dark stain covering most of the fabric. It was rusty and crumbling, grains of powder were visible on the bare white skin.

Blood, he identified. An old one, not belonging to Orochimaru - that amount of blood loss would be lethal.  
Was he getting sloppy?

"This," Orochimaru started, almost tripping over the word. "This is how the world ended. The whole world, I think. I-I didn't try to see what's on the other side of the ocean, but it is technically possible because, because of the roots."

He was almost frantic, twitchy, there was an unhealthy glow in his eyes.

Hiruzen had questions. Many, many questions about how and why and who.

"Why now?" he asked instead. "If everything is gone... what is the reason behind resurrecting me now if everything is already dead?"

He used to be able to fight against the enemy, against the thing that endangered the whole Shinobi Nations. But now... now there was no one to save, no one to protect.  
The summoning was an empty act, a waste of time and effort.

Hiruzen could see no logic behind it.

Then again, he never was able to understand this student of his.

"Oh, aren't you full of yourself!" Orochimaru chuckled. "To think your presence would change anything!"

"Then why?"

Orochimaru pointed down.

Hiruzen furrowed his brow, not understanding.  
Only after a moment he noticed a pattern carefully cut in the bark, thin lines climbing up the roots and following them down, spreading like a spiderweb.

"A seal?"

It definitely was one, a huge one, because the more he looked at the complicated pattern, the more he noticed.  
The only thing it lacked was the ink.

"See, the problem with the time-space seals is while a body can easily withstand the travel between points in the physical world, there's irreversible damage to the cells when the points are set in time," Orochimaru explained. "They are literally torn apart, we- we've checked."

"We?"

"Well, the world didn't die overnight," Orochimaru chuckled. "It, it took awhile, actually."

"Who did it?"

"This?" Orochimaru tilted his head. "How much do you remember from the last time?"

Last time. Because this was not the first time he was called back to the living world and he knew it, he just wasn't thinking about it.  
Back then, he remembered Uchiha Madara and the Sage, what Naruto and Sasuke became. And the Rabbit Goddess.

“Kaguya…” Hiruzen whispered, eyes going up, to face the empty skies, to look for the moon.

"There was more like her," Orochimaru sighed. "Many, many more and they've just kept coming."

"They don't really bother with me, you see," Orochimaru said out of nowhere. "I can't... all these years and I don't have anything to be even considered as a potential danger. I just don't die."

_Immortality._

It was the insane goal that made Orochimaru cross the line, that put blood of fellow Konoha shinobi on his hands, that made his do so many vile and horrible things.  
He had it now and it was absolutely worthless.

"What do you want from me? To go back?" Sarutobi questioned. "Wouldn't Hashirama be a better candidate for that?"

"You're so full of yourself," Orochimaru chuckled and shook his head. "I couldn't be less bothered with what you're going to do back then."

Hiruzen woke up as the sun rose, decades swirling inside his head, chaotic and powerful like a storm.  
In the very eye of this storm was the image of his student laughing, while the seal sucked blood and chakra out of him, the sky above cracking and tearing open.

  
He slowly stood up and walked towards the window, the tatami mats cold and coarse under his bare feet.  
Konoha looked...young.

The buildings bathed in the orange light of the rising sun were mostly wooden and still new, the roads were more like dirt paths than proper walkways, the electric poles and cords nowhere in sight.

This, Hiruzen thought, observing people slowly filling the streets, was not a gift.  
This was not a second chance to make things better, neither it was a last resort to save the world.

This was one last act of spite and vengeance.

Hiruzen knew what was coming, he knew how the end of the world looked like and that there was no one strong enough to stop it.  
In fifty, maybe sixty years from now, everything was going to be destroyed, devoured by the man-eating tree.  
He rested his forehead on the surface of  the windowsill and closed his eyes.

Orochimaru was truly a cruel person.


	2. Part I Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta: ox0hunny0xo

Chapter 1: Team 7

 

Hiruzen felt odd, looking down at the three children standing in front of him. They stood in a ray of sunlight, their feet planted on the cheerfully green grass.  
He used to think of them as adults. From his perspective they were adults for decades, powerful and respectable even if not all of them were good people.

Jiraiya, the hulking mountain of a man was the shortest among the children. Chubby, bouncing on his feet with excitement, knees scrapped and clothes marked with grass strains.   
Hair short and the red markings barely there, he looked almost unrecognizable.

Tsunade, visibly trying to keep a distance from the boy, was doing her best to look aloof, which wasn't working all too well; she was an adorable little girl and the puffy ponytail on top of her head was not helping any.

The last child was standing next to the rest of the group but far away to not look like a part of it, head slightly bowed, yellow eyes taking everything in while shielded by the dark, loose hair.

Orochimaru, Hiruzen thought, flashes of memories running before his eyes.

The blade deep in his gut, the underground, badly lighted facility filled with blood and suffering, the dead world filled only with the sound of crazed laughter.

"Ninja, ninja, ninja!" high, childish voice was chanting excitedly, ringing in  Hiruzens ears. "We're ninja now!"

"Are you?" Hiruzen asked, looking over them.

There were two bells in his pocket, hard and heavy, burning through the cloth. Or at least that how it felt like.

Should he?

The history wanted to run its course, Hiruzen could feel it and was tempted to just follow the flow.  
Besides, what would've changed if he turned on his heel in this very moment?  
They would maybe wait another few months before someone else would pick them as their pupils and the history would repeat itself anyway with or without him.

"Isn't this what the Academy was built for?" Tsunade questioned, narrowing her eyes. "To see who is ready to become a ninja?"

"Being ready to be a ninja and being one are two different things," Hiruzen found himself correcting her, following the ages old scenario. "You might have the abilities, but are you ready to use them?"

"I don't get it!" Jiraiya declared. "If I know how to do stuff then I know how to do stuff!"

"Then it wouldn't be so hard to steal these off me, hm?" Hiruzen asked, pulling the bells out of his pocket, urged by the scenario that haunted him like a ghost.

"Yeah!" Jiraiya shouted, both fists punching the air. "I'm going to show you how amazing I am!"

Meanwhile Tsunade and Orochimaru exchanged uncertain glances.

"Hey what are you? Chickens? Let's go, kick some ass!" Jiraiya, sensing that his previous declaration found no support in his teammates turned around and started screaming at them, presenting his whole backs to Hiruzen, his supposed opponent.

"I don't think this is going to work the way you think," Tsunade said slowly.

"What do you mean?!" Jiraiya demanded. "I've passed the Academy! I'm ready!"

"Barely," the girl muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"He's the Hokage," Orochimaru added.  
The words were difficult to make out both because he was talking while shielding his mouth with one of his sleeves and because the words were not coming out right.

Hiruzen completely forgot about this, because Orochimaru worked on his own to deal with the lisp and the only trace of it was a subtle slur to the way he pronounced some words, making him sound like he was constantly mocking people.  
Orochimaru probably appreciated that outcome greatly.

"So?" Jiraiya made a face at his teammates.

"How exactly are you going to rob the most powerful ninja in the village?" Tsunade asked.

"Uh... because I'm badass!"

The girl looked back at the other boy.

"We're screwed, aren't we?"

Orochimaru simply nodded, still staring at Jiraiya and barely blinking, like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.  
It was enough to push Jiraiya over the edge.  
With a roar, the boy jumped in the direction of Hiruzen, hands outstretched and open, hoping to surprise the man.

Hiruzen made a single step to the side, letting the boy fly right past him.

Jiraiya managed to finally stop a few feet away from him.  
He whirled in place, shouted something Hiruzen couldn't quite decipher and shot forward once more.

"This is not going to work," Hiruzen could hear Tsunade dryly commenting the mock duel going on.

"Uh-huh," Orochimaru agreed.

Jiraiya was not giving up, jumping around him and trying all the possible angles.

Hiruzen had to admit, that was some determination.  
Sadly, it wasn't working for the boy at all - all he managed to get was a face full of dirt when an attack from above didn't work as he planned.

"Don't you think this is enough-" he started and then he had to sidestep again, because a rock flew at him from behind.

He turned and raised an eyebrow at the two other genin.  
Both managed to look somewhat innocent.

"Yaagh!" Jiraiya used the chance to jump from the ground again.

Hiruzen simply knelt down, letting the kid fly over him, to smash right into his teammates.  
He stood up and looked down at the tangled, squealing mess of children.

This, he thought, was going to be a long day.

 

xxx

 

Once upon a time, Sarutobi Hiruzen passed a team of genin, impressed by their sheer determination and unusual tactics.

This time Sarutobi Hiruzen told the same group of genin that he's going to think about it before making his decision.  
It was probably going to make the Senju clan angry, since Tsunade was their pride and joy, the gifted and prodigal little girl, but Hiruzen didn't particularly care.  
A single day wasn't going to make any difference and he needed time to thing.

Wouldn't it be better if someone else took over leading this particular genin team?  
Back then, those children learned on their own for a lot of the time and if there was more supervision over them then maybe...  
Carefully putting tobacco in his pipe, Hiruzen tried to recall some faces from among the hundreds of dead ones.

Dropping them in Danzo's lap could be an actually a decent idea.   
He was still young, not as bitter as the age and wars turned him out to be.   
Maybe the children would be good for him.  
Maybe they would be just what he needed...

But there was ROOT, a thing born from Danzo's mind, that turned children into tools, that longed for the times where shinobi knew only war and death.  
And while Hiruzen knew that it could temper Orochimaru's ambitions, it would also mean sacrificing people Tsunade and Jiraiya could become in the future.  
Would it really be worth the risk?

There was Uzumaki Mito, the seal mistress and the first Jinchuriki, but after Hashirama's passing she rarely was leaving the Senju compound.  
She preferred to stay inside the mansion, developing seals and rarely showing up in the village.  
He respected her will before because it was earned - with every passing day she was keeping an unimaginable power at bay, giving Konoha the time to grow and evolve.

He didn't want to consider the Uchiha; the guilt was still strong, even if the people who died because he wasn't strong enough were not even born yet.   
And... it would be dangerous to place Orochimaru so close to the source of his obsession. Who knows what could he become if faced with the temptation so early?

The list was awfully short - the most promising Jonin were already teachers to other groups and he couldn't just order people to send one group of genin back; all of the teams had a clan child as a member and offending a clan so short after them joining the village would be a bad idea.

There was only one decision left for him to make, a decision that wasn't even a choice.

Hiruzen sighed heavily and breathed out the smoke.  
It tasted like ashes.

 

Xxx

 

The genin looked up at the Inuzuka ninkens that towered over them like hulking giants, different expressions on the chubby childish faces.

Jiraiya was in awe at the sight of the mountain of a dog, barely able to hold his excitement.

Well. Not holding his excitement very well.  
He was squealing loudly in between gasps of awe, running from one corner of the field to another, while the dogs  had to watch where they step.

Tsunade was acting much more respectfully, as expected of a clan heir.  
She bowed to both the Inuzuka  clan head and her ninken and was doing her hardest to address both of them when she was greeting them.

Orochimaru kept his face carefully blank and seemed to be satisfied with peeking over Tsunade's shoulder.

"So, these little twerps are students of the Hokage?" Inuzuka looked them up and down. "They don't look like much!"

"Hey!" Jiraiya's head snapped up in protest.

"They show promise," Hiruzen said neutrally. "But right now they should concentrate on helping you."

"I hope they will be able to get the size right," the woman just shrugged. "We'll see I guess."

The mission was very straightforward: help build the kennels for the ninken, big enough to be comfortable for the adult companions of the Inuzuka shinobi.  
While the adult carpenters would be more suited for the job, the genin had one advantage over them: they could work from the inside of the dog house without a problem and standing completely straight.

"I don't like the job, but I love the job!" Jiraiya moaned. "They are so awesome, but I want to be awesome too and hammering down nails is not awesome!"

"You need to build a foundation for that greatness," Hiruzen smiled at the over enthusiastic boy. "Helping a fellow Konoha Shinobi is a very good start."

"Uh...alright I guess?" Jiraiya scratched the back of his head. "I'm fine helping them and all, but shouldn't we train to save people and stuff?"

"You're going to save my ninken from the elements," Inuzuka commented dryly.  "And now chop chop, to work! I believe your sensei has his own job to concentrate on and I would like to finish at least a few of the structures before sun goes down!"

Jiraiya moaned, but one push from the humongous ninken was enough to make him giggle and pick up the hammer.

The work... wasn't going exactly well.

Jiraiya was over enthusiastic and wasted more nails than he managed to hammer down and finally got into the tumble with some of the younger of the ninken.  
It was hard to tell him apart from the pile of the dogs.

Tsunade was doing her hardest to act like a professional ninja and a respectful clan heir, but her impossible strength was getting in the way even at the tender age of six.  
She broke two boards, then she broke the hammer.

She still had done more work than Orochimaru, who spend most of the time keeping an eye where the ninken stood instead of doing things he was supposed to do.

Overall, it wasn't a terrible outcome for a genin team unleashed on Konoha for the first time.

"They're not that bad," the Inuzuka clan head said. "Not very smart, but I wasn't expecting much."

"So, are you willing to let the children continue the mission?"

"The ninken seemed to enjoy their presence," she shrugged. "They can continue, it's going to be a good learning experience for everyone."

Hiruzen wasn't sure if she meant the children or the ninken but then he decided it wasn't important.  
The ninken were a part of the village too and needed to learn how to behave among the people that were not their partners and trainers and this was the perfect occasion to do such thing: a common goal, safe environment and a good weather.  
They couldn't ask for more.

The fact that the mission was accepted as more or less successful gave him the perfect excuse to mark it as a long term one and continue to send his team to the Inuzuka compound up until the kennels were finished, buying Hiruzen more time to figure out what he was even supposed to do.

He spend the rest of the evening listening to Jonins reporting missions they send their genin teams on.  
Some of them managed to have a peaceful day, some others were a complete wreck.

"I'm so, so sorry," Sakumo Hatake bowed deeply again, grey ponytail swinging around his shoulders as he repeated the motion.

He was the youngest jonin in Konoha and  Hiruzen from before decided to give him a team to give the young man time to develop further his leadership skills.  
The current Hiruzen didn't saw anything wrong with letting things go exactly as they did previously.

"It is fine. Mistakes are a great teacher."

"I still have no idea how they managed to blew up the rice field. They don't even know any fire ninjutsu!"

"Children," Hiruzen nodded wisely, feeling very old in his not even thirty years old body. "They do surprise you on many occasions. "

He looked at the young shinobi, expecting to feel guilt over the fate that was awaiting the young man, but all he felt was a pang of jealousy.  
For him, there were no more surprises, because he already lived through his life and was not only following the footsteps in the sand, slowly but surely heading towards the end.

 

xxx

 

Not a single one of the genin was very happy after he delivered the news about them continuing the mission until the construction was finished.  
Even Jiraiya wasn't all that enthusiastic about the dogs anymore.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to update this story more often, at least until I run out of the stuff I've managed to produce during November :3


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Slippery Slope

 

Days passed, one after another, the world a mirror image of the one from the past.

Hiruzen was certain he didn't remember anything with such clarity: not the words, not the details or emotions behind each interaction and yet the pieces felt together perfectly, as if the universe itself made sure that everything was slowly crawling towards its ultimate fate, uninterrupted and unwavering.

Seven groups of genin got accepted as teams, passing whatever expectation their new teachers had and his own was among them.

His ninja we're leaving on missions and returning from them and Konoha itself was steadily growing.

All that - the missions, the reports, planning out the budget, arguing about building and priorities, diplomacy and the need to gather resources, it all helped him to escape thinking about the children who were going to become legends.  
Long time ago, he felt guilt for leaving his children alone with their tasks, now he felt only relief.

However they couldn't stay out of his mind for long.

He left for literally five minutes to hear a report from a shinobi that just finished a mission far out of the village and returned to an absolute mess.

They were supposed to simply help with brushing the dogs and yet.

The Inuzuka who was supposed to overview the D-rank was screaming, the dogs were growling, Tsunade was growling back.

"What happened?" He asked, resigned for the upcoming migraine.

"She punched my ninken!" Inuzuka Ran screeched, long mane of dark hair appearing more wild than just a few minutes ago, as if it was reacting to her moods.

The young woman pointed at a tiny little girl, scars peeking from under rolled up uniform sleeve.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.  
That was… rather childish behavior, especially coming from someone who clearly saw a battlefield and knew it intimately.

Then again, Ran was young and literally raised as much by the dogs as the humans. If not more; before Konoha, the Inuzuka were a nomadic clan.

Keeping children close to the ninken, who served as a source of warmth and safety at the same time was their clan way of doing things. They grew up, knowing their partners in a way that was impossible to accomplish by any other means and therefore they were obsessively protective of what they seemed to be the weaker members of their pack.

Hiruzen followed the pointing finger and looked at his genin team.  
If he had to be honest, Tsunade looked like she was seriously considering biting the dog.

Her two teammates were standing a few steps behind her.  
Jiraiya looked like he was ready for a brawl and Hiruzen was honestly surprised that he wasn't the one who punched the dog.  
Just a single step behind him Orochimaru was doing his hardest to keep his face calm and professional.  
It didn't look right on a childish chubby face even if it wasn't a successful attempt at all. His hair were messed up and they were wet and standing up on one side, covered up with dog slob.

"Well, he should've known better than getting all over my teammate!" Tsunade argued back.

Orochimaru made a face and Jiraiya looked back at him with alert expression.

That explained why he wasn't up in the front, brawling with the dog, Hiruzen thought.  
Then a realization hit him with a force, that would put Tsunade from the future to shame.

Just what he was thinking?

He knew that Orochimaru didn't like dogs when he was younger. He didn't like big animals, he didn't like loud, sudden sounds and he acted most of the time like he had a personal vendetta against mess.  
Dogs were all these things put together and yet they were here, taking care of the ninken for the fifth mission in a row.  
Sure, it didn't end up like that any time before, but...

But Hiruzen was tormenting a six years old child for something a man of forty had done.  
He pinched the bridge of his nose, because the gesture helped him to cover  his face in shame without betraying too much.

"I am sorry," he said finally, facing the Inuzuka and her ninken, but the woman wasn't the only one person he was talking to. "I assure you, that I will send a team of genin better suited for this job to not cause you further trouble."

Ran didn't look particularly happy with this outcome. She didn't say anything, simply nodded, but her glare at the children told everything that needed to be told.

He quickly shooed the genins away.  
It was a good decision.

"I am not sorry," Tsunade declared  loudly the moment they stepped onto one of the training grounds.

"You are aware that attacking a ninken is just like punching a fellow Konoha shinobi, am I right?" Hiruzen pointed out dryly.

The girl merely huffed.

"I don't care!" she stomped and the ground protested, cracking under her foot. "I would punch a dude too if he was jumping on Orochimaru!"

"Yeah!" Jiraiya both agreed and applauded Tsunade, fists up in the air, definitely all fired up for a fight.

Hiruzen groaned.  
This... was not a conversation he wanted to have any time soon.

"I'm sorry for not keeping my cool," Orochimaru said with a small bow, hair still messed up.

He was trying to straighten them out with his fingers the whole way, but it didn't quite work out.

"You didn't lose the cool, you're still cool!" Jiraiya reassured him quickly.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.  
Apparently all it needed was a bit of a dog spit to keep those two for being at each other throats.

"Since you don't have a mission for today anymore, I think you should spend the rest of the day working on your stamina," he declared.

All three children made a painful groans.

"Remember, there's no such thing as too much endurance training!" he said cheerfully, quitting one of his favorite Jonin. The man wasn't even born yet but many shinobi would improve their performance greatly if they spend just a bit of their time following his example.

"Now get to it, I have to go and report the failed D-rank, so someone else can pick it up."

"You're reporting it to yourself," Tsunade pointed out with a sour grimace.

"That is the paperwork for you," he smiled at the girl.

From what little he heard during the first time he was resurrected, she became a great Hokage, worthy of respect from all the others.

The moment the genin started moving around, he escaped the training ground,  thoughts galloping ten thousand miles per second.  
He had changed thing.

He didn't know if it was a permanent thing or just a little difference in the conversation that would end up buried under years of experience but... his team was much more together than they were in their childhood and simply because he decided to be cruel to one of them.

He needed... he needed to think.

And he needed to talk to someone.

 

xxx

 

Enma the Monkey King appeared in front of him in a puff of smoke.

He looked left, then he looked right and finally he faced Hiruzen.

"We don't appear to be in the middle of  a battle," he said.

"We are not," Hiruzen nodded.

It was an evening of the same day the fiasco with the Inuzuka took place. He probably should've waited some more, but the thoughts were dancing under his skull, making it impossible to think about anything else.  
He finally gave up at dusk.

It took just a few minutes to escape the office and climb down the Hokage tower, order the ANBU to clear one of the rooms deep down underground and put the kettle on fire, preparing a set of tea cups on the table.

"What is that you need then, if it's not my aid?" Enma questioned, furrowing his brow and leaning forward with curiosity.

Back then, back here, they had more of a professional relationship, their friendship not yet set in stone.  
They weren't two old men who could summon each other just to play some shogi and smoke a pipe in peace, after all.  
They were young and all they one was war and ideals, pretty stories of world prospering in peace while their kind grow, not noticing that those two things were opposite of each other.

"Oh, I am searching aid, just not the kind you were expecting to face."

Enma quirked an eye and looked him up and down.

Then he shifted and sat down on one of the pillows, legs comfortably crossed, tail lazily moving behind him.

"Would you like some tea?" Hiruzen offered. "Unless you don't have time today, then we could reschedule-"

"When have you become such a meek man?" Enma bared his teeth in an expression that was somewhere between distaste and distant.

"It was a lifetime ago," Hiruzen replied truthfully, with a deep, tired sigh.

He was young and yet he felt like a man of over sixty, the decisions of decades once lived through  still weighting him down.

"I feel like I will need that tea," Enma commented dryly.

They had all the time today, Hiruzen pushed away all the meetings and responsibilities, by simply leaving a note.  
It was amusing, to imagine his council trying to pick up the pace in haste.

The room was also secure, used for sharing secrets that couldn't be overheard. Mito made sure of it, back when Tobirama was still alive and the tension between the nations was about to reach the boiling point.  
What happened to that place again? Did Intelligence took over it, or was it the ANBU?

He carefully poured the tea into the cups.

"So? Enma asked after a moment of silence. "What bothers you?"

What didn't.

"I..." he started, trying to choose something, from among all the words whirling inside his head.

Why was it that difficult? His heart was pouting, his hands were unpleasantly hot and he wrapped fingers around the cup, fearing that his hands would shake otherwise.

There was the literal end of the world looming over them, there was the Uzushio turned into the ruins, there was Danzo turning dark, the war coming one after another and death and the Fox and his student laughing when he used Hiruzen to commit suicide, because nothing else had worked.

"How do you know when there's something wrong with a person?" the words slipped past his lips on their own.

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Enma said slowly.

Hiruzen sighed deeply.

"One of my students," he started. "I fear there is something wrong with him. Something dark."

Enma looked underwhelmed.

"You are training your young to become killers for hire," he said. "Yet you worry when they become just that?"

"We are shinobi," he protested. "But there was no one like him!"

Was there? Madara and the Akatsuki, Hanzo the Salamander and many more, dozens upon dozens of dirty little secrets sweept under the rub by the other Kages.  
But his mistake lived, he lived through one impossible situation and then another one and another, up until there was no one else.

They don't bother anymore, he said.

Hiruzen closed his eyes.

“Wasn't your team made of little pipsqueaks?” Enma questioned. “I have trouble with imagining how dangerous they can be when they still have their milk teeth.”

“This is a little more complicated than that.”

“That I can see,” Enma sighed

“Not too long ago, you were so enthusiastic about the prospect of teaching the next generation. Yet here we are.”

Here they were indeed.

Hiruzen looked down onto his hands, young and unmarked by wrinkles and scars, cradling cup filled with warm tea.  
It was hot enough to feel like the thin ceramic surface was burning against his skin.

He could just… follow the events, let history drag him the path he already knew or he could-

Hiruzen started talking, words spilling one after another, bringing both relief and terror as they told the tale of a doomed world and even more condemned soul.

"I can hardly place judgement on anyone without meeting them first," Enma said finally.

"Would you do that?"

"If this is what it takes to help you put yourself together," the monkey King nodded. "Summon me next time you need help training your team. I can spare a day and observe them in your stead."

"Thank you," Hiruzen bowed his head, relief washing over him, like a breath of fresh air, taking away the tension he didn't even new was there. "I will be in your debt."

"You already are," the monkey king pointed out. He finished his tea and carefully put the empty cup back on the table, before disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Hiruzen sat by the empty table for a few moments longer, relishing in the silence and the knowledge that something was being done.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny Tsunade is fun to write when you can explore her violent streak and the tendency to not take bullshit from anyone.
> 
> Enma is a character that sure deserve to be explored some more, even if it's just to have someone to facepalm at Hiruzen for not doing his job.
> 
> Hiruzen is very good at avoiding doing his job.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: First Waves

  


The occasion to drop the genin team in the capable hands of his summon came much earlier than he expected, not even a full week after they have talked.  
An issue came up and it was one that needed his full attention and for the first time since waking up, Hiruzen didn't feel like he needed to run away.

This was the day when the Aburame clan members showed up and asked for the permission to join the Konoha village; they were close allied to the Akimichi from way before the ninja village was even founded ad finally decided to fully unite their forces.  
They were not the first clan to show up in the such manner and will not be the last one either.  
Many people traveled long way, unable to resist the temptation of safety inside the walls of a shinobi village.

"Don't worry, I made sure you will have someone to oversee your training in my stead," He said. "And I have enough time to show you a very dangerous, a very powerful jutsu."

"Yeah!" Jiraiya jumped with his fists up in the air. "Finally! Badass ninja, badass ninja stuff!"

"Hold onto your horses," Hiruzen warned him. "You are not supposed to try to perform it under any circumstances, it is a very dangerous jutsu. You might hurt yourself."

"We made sure he doesn't do anything," Tsunade promised and Orochimaru nodded.

Hiruzen still remembered the heart attack from ages ago, when his warning were not severe enough and Jiraiya almost managed to kill himself. He hoped this time things would go more smoothly.

A drop of blood and a summoning Jutsu later, the monkey king was looking down on the genins, towering over them like a mountain.

"So, these are the brats of yours?" Enma asked. He didn't look particularly impressed.

"They are," Hiruzen nodded. "I'll entrust them to you.."

The monkey king gave him a wicked smile.

"I'm sure we will have lots of fun," he said.

The genins crowded close together, suddenly nervous.

Hiruzen left with glee.

 

xxx

 

A week passed in what seemed to be a blink of an eye.  
Or a dream, maybe.

Memories he thought long forgotten came to life all around him, overwhelming and surreal, ghosts of words yet unsaid appearing inside his mind before it was even time to talk.

For the last one, Hiruzen was glad.

He wasn't sure if he would be able to do anything if not for it; the world, it was overwhelming.

There was continuous noise coming from the streets:  Konoha was growing several buildings at a time, the construction work starting early in the morning and ending late in the evening each day. Clan merchants and those few civilians who decided to tie their fate with a shinobi village were creating their own sort of ruckus, filled with voices and hiss of fried food.

The shinobi were travelling mostly by the rooftops of the even rows of the identical buildings, while the children were filling the streets with high-pitched voices and laughter.

It wasn't the only thing either: there was the smell of green leaves and freshly cut wood mixed with the odors of fresh food, burned sand and many things more. The sunlight was filling the room, blinding and strong, almost burning against his skin, reflecting on the polished surface of the wooden floor.

"It appears everyone had assembled," Koharu caught quietly, catching his attention. "Lord Hokage?"

She looked different and it wasn't only because her face wasn't riddled with wrinkles - her back was straight, the old type flak jacket and a belt with additional pouches along with a sheathed wakizashi were as far as one could get from a traditional kimono tying her legs close together.  
The only thing that didn't change about her was the way she did her hair - tied in a high bun, slightly on the extravagant side now and very old fashioned then, with a long sharp steel needle painted gold.

Behind her, Danzo was looming like a dark shadow, filling the room with heavy smell of disinfectants and bandages. Homura was close by, ready to lend a hand.

Hiruzen quickly looked past them, forcing himself to return to the current moment.

He nodded, slowly looking over everyone gathered in the room - a small group of Jonin that were trusted with teaching the new generation of shinobi and a slightly larger group of clan heads.

The heads of the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans were looking straight ahead, determined to ignore each other, the Senju being not enough despite sitting exactly between them, while the matriarch of the Inuzuka couldn't stop herself from glancing at the two men now and then and biting the side of her cheek to stop herself from openly laughing.

Next to her, he could see the heads of the Nara and Yamanaka clans, with the hulking frame of the Akimichi elder towering over their backs, looking more like a samurai than a shinobi in his heavy armor.

The old Hatake Komugi was the last clan head in the room, silvery hair tied in the characteristic low ponytail.

Such small numbers, Hiruzen reflected. So many have yet to join the village.

So many were going to perish.

"Let's start then," Hiruzen nodded. "Team One. Is there anything that needs to be addressed this early?"

Biwako made a step forward and slightly bowed her head to him, fully professional despite the fact that she was one of the few people who could get away with doing as she pleased; at this time they were already betrothed and while she wasn't a Sarutobi by birth, she was still carrying the clan name, being one of the many civilian-born protegees.

"There are no things that would cause a reason to worry," she replied. "The children are uncertain of each other but a leader emerged early enough among them and the team is slowly learning to work together."

"This is good news," Hiruzen nodded.

"It helps greatly that the clans were allied but there's still a great deal of work needed if I'm to turn them into something that would bring honor to our village."

 "Are you certain you can manage that?" Homura asked. "I do not doubt the might of the Akimichi, but the Nara and the Yamanaka were never trained for the frontal assault."

"Oh, I have an idea how to turn them into something great," Biwako replied.

"These are not my clan members," Koharu started slowly. "But I've seen Sarutobi's strategies helping our shinobi win one battle after another."

"We all can't be frontline fighters, my dear," Homura shrugged. "But if you say so and the clans have nothing against your plans, then I'll support your decisions."

"What about your own team?" Hiruzen asked his old teammate. "Are there any troubles?"

"None worthy of mention," she replied. "Their skills are not evened out yet, but nothing that couldn't be solved by training."

It was a good thing to hear, since she had a young Uchiha under her wings, while Homura was teaching a member of the Hyuuga clan.  
Hiruzen remembered how difficult it was to talk his old teammate into taking a team in the first place, but he was determined to not offend one of the most powerful clans right off the bat.  
Even if the Hyuuga agreed to send to the academy only a single branch member.

"My Hokage?" the Hyuuga asked.

"You may speak."

"I fear that the placement of young shinobi with blood limits on a team without it is going to be detrimental to their progress," he said. "With all due respect to our fellow shinobi and their abilities, only the clan can teach how to use the abilities that are restricted to their bloodline."

"The clan is still able to train their young as they see fit," Hiruzen replied. "However as a village, we need to learn how to work together. "

He kept his face neutral, despite the fact that his heart felt like it was made of lead.  
Strong bonds.

Once, he believed that it would be enough to keep the village together, to keep any tragedy at bay.  
Now he knew better, but...

He was just tired. Too tired to try and interfere, too tired to figure out something else, something better. So he just recited the old script, feeling old and much more broken than Danzo was at this very moment.

"Training with other shinobi, shinobi specialized in forms of combat your clan doesn't use would help young ones to learn how to fight against people that are not their clan members," he continued. "To look for a different ways and to learn how to recognize and deal with unfamiliar ninja arts."

The Hyuuga were absolutely terrifying enemy to face in the hand to hand combat and could dance in a field riddled with exploding seals and traps without activating a single one, but faced with ninjutsu users who specialized in using more than one element they always took heavy loses.

The Hyuuga hummed.

"Thank you for that explanation, my lord," he more nodded than bowed his head. "We would appreciate to see how the child progresses and bears againsts other shinobi."

"This is a reasonable request," Hiruzen nodded. "Perhaps in the future we shall made the young ones face each other, so we could see with our own eyes how their training progressed."

"Even your team?" For the first time since the beginning of the meeting Danzo opened his voice. "I recall you had your doubts about training them."

"They are very young in comparison to other teams."

"They are older than we were when we stood on the battlefield for the first time."

"And yet still nothing but children," he said softly.

 

xxx

 

Hiruzen spend most of his days feeling more like a puppet on a string than when he was brought back from the dead.  
He just... followed the events and the things he was told that needed to be done, travelling from one action to another, repeating all the things he had done once upon a time.

Until he wasn't.

One thing happened after another and the reality slowly but mercilessly began to slip through his fingers like sand, fluid and ever changing.   
It was just little things right now, a word out of place here and there, a feeling of things being off, but Hiruzen knew that an something was looming right behind the horizon, monstrous in size and merciless like tsunami.

He caused some of these waves himself, Hiruzen knew that well - through some of his miserable splashes in the river of time were apparently pointless - all Enma told him was that he needed some time to think.

"You're not acting like yourself," Uzumaki Mito stated with a clear accusation in her voice, eyes narrowed.  
She cornered him without a warning and seemingly out of nowhere, somehow towering over him despite the fact they were about the same height.

"Am I?"

She huffed.

"You're sleepwalking through the day. With your position, this is unacceptable."

Scolding the Hokage was not something a shinobi should be doing, but Uzumaki Mito was not a normal shinobi.  
Despite the age, her hair were still untouched by white, as wine-red as they were when Hiruzen saw her for the first time.  
Even her face appeared to be untouched by time, bright but stern, radiating with as much power as beauty.

Hiruzen felt a pang of jealousy, because at this age, he was going to be riddled with wrinkles and peppered with grey hair.  
It was a rare thing for a shinobi to live for such a long time; his own father used to say that those few that managed to live a long life were the most unlucky of them all.

Hiruzen wasn't sure what he would be in his father's book, considering the circumstances.

"I found myself rethinking a lot of the decision I've made," he admitted.

It was not a lie. He doubted that even with the decades of experience he would be able to get away with a lie in front of those hawk-like eyes.

Mito quirked an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed.

"You were told that being both a hokage and a teacher is going to be difficult," she commented. "Though I'm disappointed that you are so quickly to  admit your defeat."

"I'm just afraid that I won't have enough time for the children," he said.  That was bordering on a lie, because of that, he was actually sure.

There never was enough time for any of them, forcing the children to learn and seek things out on their own.  
They became strong, the became legends but Hiruzen wondered what could they be if there was someone to watch over them.

"It is too late for it now," Mito said. "You cannot be seen changing your mind. It would make you look weak and a weak Hokage is not something Konoha needs."

Hiruzen closed his eyes.

He could feel the waves of change getting closer, the dark shape of changes getting closer, getting bigger with every passing second, every moment of breathing.  
It could be as well the time to invite the monster in, to at least have an illusion of choice in the matter.

"May I ask you for a favor then?"

Mito narrowed her eyes.

"With every passing day, Konoha over me another favor," she said. "For this village, I gave my everything, and yet you are asking me give you even more."

"I'm not trying to force you to take over the children in my stead!" he protested.

"Don't you?" she asked bitterly. "One of them is the daughter of Wakagi."

"Your granddaughter," he nodded, slightly irked at the way she related to her family.

"Is she?" Mito questioned. "I'm an Uzumaki, yet I live away from the Fortress of Storms. I married a Senju and gave birth to a Senju. Here, I'm but a cage for the beast."

Bitter.

She was bitter in the same way that Tsunade was before she left, in the same way that kept Jiraiya away, the way that slowly chipped at the White Fang before it drove his very own blade right into his flesh.

"Tsunade is not the one I have in mind," he said slowly. "And I don't want to treat you unfairly either. What  do you want in exchange?"

There was a flash of interest in her eyes.

"Now, that's even more unusual," she said slowly, dragging words like Orochimaru used to when he was mocking someone. "A Kage, not ordering but asking for an exchange."

She sighed and shook her head.

"No matter. What I want, is not something you can give me."

He looked up, straight into her eyes.

"Try me."  


xxx

 

While Hiruzen was following the footsteps in the sand during the day, he was lying awake during the nights.

Staring at the wooden beams of the ceiling, he was analyzing the day that had passed and dreading the upcoming one. He should be making a difference, any difference, but the mere thought of  doing so was terrifying. And what if he did it accidentally? What if he remembered something wrong, what if one word spoked out of time would snowball into a monstrosity of consequences he couldn't predict?

The fear of change mixed well with the need to make a difference as the unmerciful sun slowly rose upon Konoha.

If a man grew into a murder because that was all he was taught, then maybe he would become something else if his talents were nurtured in another way.  
Maybe.

Maybe it was him fooling himself or maybe it was an act of petty vengeance against the monster who send him here.  
Probably the later, because the thought of taking away what made Orochimaru Orochimaru was what pushed Hiruzen into making his decision.  
One way or another, Hiruzen made his mind.

Now he just had to figure out how to turn that into reality and before he he decides it it a bad idea after all.

Hiruzen knew he would; his mind was a cowardly traitor.

Last time, Tsunade figured everything pretty much by herself, first perfecting her own skills and then turning Konoha hospital into something nobody even imagined was possible. Hiruzen knew the end goal, but the steps that led to said goal... he hoped that she would once again find all the right solutions on her own.

The first thing he needed to provide was a teacher - he had no knowledge of medical jutsu, his clan leaving the task to the adoptees.

it was a tempting thought to just find Biwako and ask her to point at the right person but that could end up badly.  
Not because Biwako would point at someone untrustworthy, but because Tsunade was the current heir of the Senju clan.  
He was her sensei and yet finding someone else from his clan to better suit her needs would be seen like he was trying to turn the Senju into the underlings of his clan.

On the other hand, this was making everything easier - for him, not for the children.

The hospital was far, far from what it was going to become in the future.  
Currently just an one store building, more a barrack than anything else; a long corridor with rows of rooms on both sides, the only difference between them were only the numbers on the wooden surfaces.

Already too small to properly fulfill its function in the quickly growing village, with mostly civilian staff, the building desperately needed foundings for a second wind and much more.

But for that, Hiruzen needed a viable reason.

Last time, it was the war that pushed them into upgrading it in haste, this time... this time there could be an excuse in making, one that would let him do it earlier.

As he walked down the corridor, people stopped dead to greet him, both the personnel and the patients.

"My lord!" the current manager - Yakushi Yozu, young and with an one of a kind curl to his dirty blond hair - jumped from his seat and bowed deeply, the sudden movement pushing a pile of documents off the crowded surface of his desk. "What caused you to honor us with your visit?"

Hiruzen could clearly hear the whine, as the man, still bowed, saw the paper sheets slowly falling to the floor.

"Relax," Hiruzen smiled softly, fighting the urge to kneel down and start picking up the documents.

While his knees weren't bad, it would create a situation he preferred to avoid for now.

"I'm here, because I've decided some of the children that finished their Academy education would fit nicely among the medic nins."

"Truly?" the man straightened up, blinking.

"I would be glad if they could do that here, shadowing the personnel?"

"They would need to learn the basics first," the immediate agreement made Hiruzen quirk his eyebrow. "So they won't get in the way..."

"Naturally," he nodded in agreement.

"When they will be ready to begin?" Yakushi asked. "I'll make sure they'll have materials available and someone to oversee their progress."

"You seem surprisingly eager," Hiruzen pointed out.

Yakushi swallowed and then looked straight at him.

"I see a great chance, my Hokage," he said. "It would be a tragedy to waste it."

"A chance?"

"People might think what they want, but every person knowing medical jutsu is priceless,” the medic stated fearlessly. “Sadly, it is not as visible as the ability to set a whole town on fire with a single jutsu, so…”

He shrugged.

Ages ago, Hiruzen rarely interacted with the hospital staff, satisfied with the fact that it existed and functioning.  
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but bitterness wasn’t among them.  
Was it always like that?

Was it his fault, was it a left over from the time where a shinobi village was but a pipe dream?

“A great chance, you say,” Hiruzen hummed. “A chance for what, exactly?”

“You are giving us your own students, my lord. If even one or two others follow their steps, I would count it as a victory.”

“I hope you’re right,” he allowed with a sigh.

“My lord?”

“I prefer my shinobi to be alive,” Hiruzen said. It came out much more dry than he expected it to.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!
> 
> The worldbuilding is getting scary big, but it's fun exploring how a village could grow into the Konoha we know from the canon.
> 
> Say hi to the familiar faces and to ninja politics!


	5. Chapter 5

Countdown 05: Splitting Apart

 

The seven Jonin and the council meet again, this time to present their long term plans for each of the genin teams.

Koharu and Homura both declared they are going to train their teams as the frontal assault units - the clans wouldn't let them to do anything else anyway, since there was more glory on the battlefield for the shinobi that were visible rather than the stealthy ones.  
  
Sakumo and an Inuzuka both declared to create teams of trackers and were already glaring at each other not at all discrete in their newborn rivalry.

"I am going to create a surgical strike unit," Biwako declared.

"A what?" Danzo questioned.

"One doesn't need to spend the whole day on the battlefield to cause devastating damage," she replied. "And we're not samurai to do so. my team is going to obliterate the enemy before they are even noticed and then disappear just as quickly

"Quick is not the world I was expecting, considering who is on your team."

"Oh?" Biwako raised her eyebrows. "Then how about we test our teams against each other, to see how well they fare?"

"A tournament?" Hatake frowned. "It would be hardly fair on the teams that are not battle oriented."

"Then how about we even the field?" Danzo proposed. "We are shinobi we do not fight on the arena's."

"What are you proposing?"

"A battle royale on one of our bigger training fields," he said. "The last team standing is going to be declared victorious."

"That sounds promising," Biwako smiled like a wolf.

"We'll talk about this more.

Danzo hummed.

"These numbers are miserable," he stated with a grimace. "Twenty one genin and only three teams specialized in combat."

They were.

However these numbers were not telling the whole truth either; every clan that joined Konoha send just one child to join the Academy. Not the heir, not the second to the heir - they all picked the smartest from among the expendable children and were surely questioned daily about everything they've observed.

"The clans are not trusting us," Homura said, nodding. "They see us as young and inexperienced and the new ideas as not as safe as what they're used to."

"Don't be too harsh on them," Koharu responded. "Tradition is what keeps them alive."

"This is one more reason to show them how great our teams could become," Biwako stated.

"You sure are full of yourself," Koharu narrowed her eyes.

"I have all the reasons to be," Biwako smiled sweetly.

"Hubris might doom you," Koharu warned her.

"Oh, it's a challenge I sense?"

"Ladies," Danzo coughed. "This is neither time nor place."

Hiruzen chucked despite himself.

He managed to forget about the ages old rivalry between the two women.

"I think the demonstration might be a good idea," he said. "Through your math is slightly off, my friend. Myteam is not going to be turned into heavy hitters."

Here it was, the moment of change slipping past his lips, the act of a petty vengeance and the chance to turn around a fate of a handful of people.

"What do you have in mind?" Danzo furrowed his brow.

"Are you having some secret plans too?" Koharu asked, using the chance to glare some more at Biwako.

"You need only one lucky kunai to overpower even the most powerful shinobi," he started. "We've all seen that with our own eyes."

Hashirama was larger than life and yet fell to what was like mice and ants compared to him.  
Tobirama followed his fate, all his glory and power worth nothing when faced with many.

"The most important thing in my eyes is not creation of the most powerful team of shinobi still green behind their ears but to keep them alive long enough to let them grow into their power."

"A support team?" Homura narrowed his eyes. "I was sure they were picked to be your students because of their chakra pools."

They were.  
Each one of them had a vast amount of chakra at their disposal even as tiny little children and it only grew as they matured.  
Hiruzen knew now it was nothing compared to what a Jinchuriki could become, but they were close enough.

"You want to sacrifice our brightest, most promising shinobi," Danzo said, grimacing with disgust.

"I'm not sacrificing anyone," Hiruzen replied. "What I'm saying is that we need to use the moment of peace to concentrate on producing medics."

"You assume there's going to be another war."

"We are shinobi," He sighed. "We live and breathe war."

"Training a medic takes a very long time," Koharu pointed out. "Should we really concentrate on that instead of making sure we have the most powerful shinobi at our disposal?"

"Who would die on one mission of another before achieving anything, because there was no medic available," he argued. "Think about it. How many genin died to silly mistakes? How many chunin and jonin returned from their mission heavily wounded and gave their report with the last breath?"

"Those people are the resource that go to waste," he continued. "The list on the Memorial stone is steadily growing while it shouldn't be."

"They know the risks."

"And we will never know the ninjutsu they would come up with, the new battle tactics they would figure out, we will never train?" Hiruzen asked. "If we're calling training people who would prevent such loses, then I will gladly sacrifice my team."

All of them gasped in surprise.

"I would understand wanting to keep the girl away from the battlefield," Danzo said slowly. "The Senju were hunted down during the war and their numbers are miserable, but the rest of them?"

Koharu nodded in agreement.

"I don't see one of the boys anywhere near the hospital," she said. "I never agreed with the idea of balancing the most brilliant genin with forcing them to adjust to the pace of the child with the worst skills and that boy is just that."

Hiruzen grit his teeth and keep his face straight.  
She didn't know. She didn't know yet, because Jiraiya had no chance to show his true colors to the world.  
He had no chance to talk to Mito and to force a favor out of her, so Jiraiya could start early.

Seals, they were as important as keeping people alive.  
Seals were one of the few things that actually worked on the inhuman clan that came from the skies and devoured the world.

"I'm more saddened about the last one," Danzo added. "Such a bright mind, such a control."

"This is exactly why I want him and Tsunade to be trained in the most difficult of the shinobi arts," Hiruzen said. "If he is as bright as you're saying, then he will have no problem with mastering it and then accelerating the speed of training others."

This was only half of the reason behind this decision; if the battlefield turned Orochimaru into a cold monster, then Hiruzen would simply put his student away from it.  
He knew Orochimaru managed to learn it on his own, sometime in the future, and twist it into something horrible.  
Here, now, maybe there was a way to keep him under control.

 

xxx

 

Of course Jiraiya wouldn't be Jiraiya if he didn't do something absolutely, utterly stupid and possibly deadly the moment he had some alone time.

Hiruzen rubbed hand over his face with a pained, tired groan, looking at an  even, round hole in the grass in the middle of the training ground.  
There was a pattern of burned grass around it and a thunk of the nearby tree was carved in on the side, the cut flat and shiny.

"That's a summoning jutsu gone wrong," he muttered. "Why I was even expecting any different outcome?"

"You have to help him!" Tsunade pulled onto his sleeve. "Why are you just standing here? He could be hurt!"

"I can't," he said softly.

"That's no fair!" Orochimaru joined into the protest. "You... you should've know he's stupid!"

"I can't help him," Hiruzen repeated. "because I can't get to where Jiraiya is. I already have a summoning contract and it would teleport me to the land of the monkeys."

"But we can't just leave him alone!" Tsunade protested.

Orochimaru furrowed his brow. Then his expression turned of one of determination.

He raised hand to his mouth and bit into his thumb.

"No!" Heart skipping a beat, Hiruzen somehow managed to grab the boy's hand before he managed to finish the summoning jutsu.

"But you said that you can't go because you have a contract...!" Orochimaru protested, words barely recognizable because he was slipping all over the consonants.

"When you don't have a contract you are teleported either to a place where the summoning animals you have an affinity for or to a completely random place. I hardly see you and Jiraiya being similar enough to wound up close to each other."

"But, but!" the boy protested. "We could... I could ask! And search! And, and!"

"I'm afraid that this is not going to work," Hiruzen said with a heavy sigh. "The summoning lands are vast and no map was even created and the being are many and distrustful."

The boy finally slumbered in defeat.

"So..." Tsunade swallowed. "We just... do nothing?"

"You trust in your teammate," he corrected her. "And you train. So when he goes back, he has your support and you can help him if he comes back hurt."

They listened in silence, heads down.

"I know this is a hard time for you two," he continued. "But I want you to concentrate on studying."

They kept being silent.

"I want both of you to go to the hospital," Hiruzen said. "There, you will learn how to perform medical jutsu. It is a very difficult thing to learn, but I believe you will be able to not only perform it but master it."

Tsunade looked up, with determination shining in her eyes, but Orochimaru kept his head down.  
Well.  
He couldn't force the boy to act the way Hiruzen wanted him to. Obedience was enough for now.

xxx

 

That could've gone better, Hiruzen thought, once it was time to leave his distraught students.  
He... didn't actually remember how things went the last time - only Jiraiya disappearing and the feeling of gut wrenching terror.

Now there was no fear, because Hiruzen knew Jiraiya would be just fine,  but somehow... something was missing.  
There wasn't much time to pick the situation apart to see what exactly went wrong; he had a scenario to follow even if there was an unpleasant weight slowly building up in his gut.

What was he missing?

What did go wrong?

Was there a change? How big, what it was, what would be the consequences?

Hiruzen rubbed at his temples, hissing under his breath and unable to recall what was written on the page he was staring at for the past few minutes.

With a deep sight, he put the paper away and pulled his pipe instead, fingers quickly going through the familiar set of motions.  
Familiarity was good, it was calming, it was muting all the sounds coming from the outside - the people, the construction sites, the regular sound of wood hitting against wood down the corridor and the soft creak of the doors leading to his office.

"I've heard you've lost one of your students," Danzo said.

He never was the one to be subtle when it came to emotions, but this was a new one ever for him.

"I did," Hiruzen nodded, observing his old - now so very young - friend.

Danzo's eye wasn't leaving him for even a second and the man didn't seem to be even blinking.

"You're acting surprisingly calm," he finally stated.

"I have a responsibility," he replied, continuing to work on his pipe.

Danzo grimaced.

"You're smoking too much," he stated.

"Are you worried?"

"You're the Hokage," Danzo replied. "As you've said, you have a responsibility."

Hiruzen toyed with his options for a short moment. He could just ignore the man... but knew Danzo well enough to see that it would end in an argument.  
He didn't feel like fighting over silly  matters.

"Is there something you need?" he asked, putting the pipe aside.

Danzo's gaze followed the pipe and settled on the item for a moment before it returned to Hiruzen.

"I've came here to ask what are you planning to do now," he said.

“My plans have not changed in the slightest,” he responded. “What needs to be done is going to be done. That’s all.”

If Danzo was anything but a ninja he would be squinting suspiciously at him right now. But he was a shinobi, so whatever he felt on the inside, was betrayed by a single, small twitch of a muscle under one of his eyes, quickly hidden when the man bowed his head.

“As you wish,” Danzo said. “And if there’s anything, I’m always willing to help.”

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.  
That… was new.

Most probably just Danzo trying to avoid any repercussions from questioning the Hokage so openly… then again, he never bothered with playing nice, scorn and distaste always hidden right behind the respectful words.  


Xxx

 

Tsunade eyed her teammate, chewing on her lip.

Since Sensei explained why they couldn't help Jiraiya, he was awfully quiet, even for himself.

At the hospital, they were just sat down in the lounge, handed books and told to read and keep quiet - only after they pass an exam the medics were going to teach them anything serious.  
It was way more underwhelming than Tsunade expected it to be, but still, it was something utterly fascinating.  
By all means, Orochimaru should've been as excited about learning as she was, but he was just going through the motions at the half of his usual speed.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Orochimaru looked up at her and was silent for a long moment.

Tsunade felt like the boy was looking through her, picking apart all the things that made her her and judged for what he found.

"This was planned," he finally said, brushing his fingers against the paper.

"What?" tsunade blinked in confusion.

"Learning this," he said. "It was planned. Everything was too well organized for it to be just Sensei giving us something to work on while we wait."

"Why it's a bad thing?"

Orochimaru chewed on his lower lip.

"Can you imagine Jiraiya, here? Learning this with us?" he finally asked.

She could.  
Or rather, couldn't. Jiraiya was not well suited for becoming a medic-nin. Sure, he was smart, in his very own way, but it wasn't book smart like the two of them.

"You can't tell me that sensei planned for him to disappear like that!" she hissed.

The pieces were fitting with each other too well and she hated the image they produced.  
No, it had to be just an accident, a misfortune interpretation of things, because he was their Sensei and he was supposed to care about them, all of them, and he was so nice-

"But if he planned for the two of us to study here," Orochimaru stubbornly continued. "Then what of Jiraiya?"

She had no answers.

"He was either planning to just leave him to his own devices or to break our team apart," Orochimaru continued. "Neither one of those options is fair. "

He was right.

It was not right, not for Jiraiya and not for their team and Sensei just jumping on the chance to dump them at the hospital the moment Jiraiya tried to use the summoning jutsu was leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

"What then?" she asked, feeling miserable and small. She wasn't supposed to be in this sort of a situation. Being on a genin team was supposed to be fun, it was supposed to be nice.

There should be merry adventures and learning ninjutsu and taijutsu and they were supposed to have time before making any sort of a difficult decision.  
It was why the Academy was built, it was why the shinobi ranks were created.  
But everything was wrong.

"Can we even do something?"

"I... I don't think so," Orochimaru admitted.

"We can just... not?" she proposed, looking at the book in front of her with longing.

"And what good would that be?" Orochimaru questioned.

"I don't know!" she shrugged. "It would be us not obeying the adults? To show them?"

"I don't think they would treat us seriously," Orochimaru shook his head. "And... it would be a waste. "

"A waste," she repeated after him.

"I... I don't like it, but Sensei was right. We should be able to make sure Jiraiya is not hurt and to heal him if he is, but to do that..."

"We need to do as we are told," she said grimly.

"Yes."

Tsunade glared at the books. They were no longer a precious, fascinating treat. Now it was an obstacle in her way.

"Race you," she said grimly. "I bet I can learn all of this faster than you do!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, look!  
> Orochimaru cares!  
> Danzo actually cares!  
> Everyone cares!


End file.
